María Elvira Salazar

María Elvira Salazar was born in Miami's Little Havana to Cuban exile parents and grew up in Miami and Puerto Rico.¹ She is the mother of two daughters and lives in Coral Gables.² Her working life in television began at twenty two, in Spanish language broadcasting.²

Salazar graduated from Miami Dade College, earned a communications degree at the University of Miami and completed a Master of Public Administration at Harvard's Kennedy School.² Her television work included local reporting for Univision, national anchoring at Telemundo and work at CNN en Español; she also hosted her own program on MegaTV.¹

Her reporting assignments included the White House, the Gulf War and El Salvador's civil war.¹ She interviewed leaders including Fidel Castro, Augusto Pinochet and Nicolás Maduro.² First elected to Congress in November 2020, she now serves on Foreign Affairs and Small Business.¹²

She sponsored the Dignity Act immigration proposal, combining border enforcement with legal protections for eligible immigrants already in the country.³⁴ Her other priorities include job training, economic development, environmental resilience and human rights, particularly in Latin America.² In April 2026, she joined Giménez in seeking restored federal funding for Catholic Charities' program serving unaccompanied children.⁵ She faces Democratic former broadcaster Eliott Rodriguez in the 2026 election.⁶